Steel cable-laid body



Nov. 4, 1969 A. LEACH 3,475,897

STEEL CABLE-LAID BODY Filed Nov. 1e, 19e? v a sheets-sheet 1 f/mwraeNov. 4, 1969 A. LEACH STEEL CABLE-LA ID BODY 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Nov.16, 196'.,`

3,475,897 Patented Nov. 4, 1969 3,475,897 STEEL CABLE-LAID BODY ArthurLeach, Kenosha, Wis., assignor to MacWhyte Company, Kenosha, Wis., acorporation of Wisconsin Filed Nov. 16, 1967, Ser. No. 683,574 Int. Cl.D02g 3/36; D07b 1 06 U.S. Cl. 57-144 5 Claims ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSUREThis invention relates to the fabrication and construction of a spinresistant cable laid body which may be fabricated on conventional wirerope making machinery and used either as a wire rope structure or as abasic sling structure for hitching to and lifting loads.

Accordingly a principal object of the invention is to provide a cablelaid body structure which is superior to the conventional cable laidbody. The latter, as known to those skilled in the art, consists of sixsteel core ropes helically twisted about a center steel core rope. Thestructure of this invention, however, has greater resistance to spin andgeneral abuse than does the conventional structure.

Another object is to provide an eight-part multipart sling structurehaving the appearance of, and kink resisting, spin resisting,flexibility, and strength properties equal and/or superior toconventional eight-part round sling bodies.

Another object is to provide an eight-part multipart sling structurethat can be fabricated on conventional wire rope making machinery. Asknown to those skilled in the are, conventional eight-part round slingbodies are fabricated either :by hand or by specially designed singlepurpose plaiting machines.

A further object is to provide an eight-part multipart sling structurethat can be as readily spliced to form loop or thimble eyes as can theconventional helically twisted wire rope or cable laid body. Forexample, the popular, economical, and efficient rolled Flemishmechanical eye splice, well known to those skilled in the art, caneasily be applied. This is not true for the conventional eight-partround sling bodies.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from areading of the following description:

The invention is illustrated more or less diagrammatically in theaccompanying figures wherein:

FIGURE l is a perspective view of a cable laid body having a portionunlaid to illustrate the internal construction;

FIGURES 2 and 3 are cross-sectional views taken along the'lines 2-2 and3-3, respectively, of FIGURE l; and

FIGURES 4, 5, 6` and 7 show diagrammatically the steps involved informing a rolled Flemish mechanical eye splice from the cable laid bodyof this invention.

Like reference numerals will be used to refer to like parts from figureto figure in the following description:

The steel cable laid body of this invention is broadly designatedgenerally by the numeral 10 and is composed of eight basic ropes 11.Each basic rope 11 can be of any wire rope. construction, but thepreferred constructions are what is known to the art as the 7 x 7 and/or7 x 19 right regular lay galvanized aircraft type.

The eight basic ropes 11 are paired and each pair is twisted or entwinedaround each other in a typical Wire rope fabricating machine to form thefour coreless basic cables 12, each cable 12 consisting of two ropes 11.The `direction of twist of the cables 12 is opposite to the direction oftwist or pitch of the basic ropes 11. That is, if the eight basic ropesare helically laid in a right hand direction, the four basic cables 12are twisted in a left hand direction. This arrangement is illustrated inFIGURE l by the symbols R and L.

The four basic cables 12 are also twisted or entwined about each other,again in a typical wire rope fabricating machine, to form the corelesssteel cable laid body illustratedat 10. The direction of twist of thefinished body is opposite to the direction of twist of the basic cables12. That is, if the four basic cables 12 are twisted in a left handdirection, the finished steel cable laid body 10 is twisted in a righthand direction.

The alternately opposite direction of twist of the eight basic ropes 11,the four basic cables 12, and the finished steel cable laid body 10 isan important feature of this invention and imparts to the structure itsnon-spinning, stable properties as well as its distinctive appearance.

Another important feature of the invention is that the length of twistof the Ifour basic cables 12 and that of the finished steel cable laidbody 10 are identical, or within the tolerances well known to thoseskilled in the art.

FIGURES 4, 5, 6 and 7 illustrate the ease with which the steel cablelaid body lends itself to the formation of spliced eyes, and may bedescribed as Ifollows:

The steel cable laid body is split into two sections 13 and 14 of adesired length which correspond substantially to the length of the eyeto be formed, each section having two adjacent basic cables 12. Careshould be taken not to disturb the set or relative position of each ofthese pairs of adjacent basic cables. See FIGURE 4.

The two sections 13 and 14 are bent in toward each other and entwinedtogether at the midpoint or bight 15 of the eye, thereby reforming ashort length of the original steel cable-laid body. See FIGURE 5.

Each side of the eye is laid up, each section being laid up alternately.Care should be taken to let each section fall naturally into the spacesthat are open to receive them. The eye 16 is completed as shown inFIGURE 6.

The eye 16 is finished by terminating all eight basic rope ends within ametal sleeve 17 located in the crotch or base area formed at thejunction of the rope structure and the eye splice, and locking thesleeve by swaging or pressing. See FIGURE 7.

From the foregoing it readily becomes apparent that a steel cable laidstructure has been developed which has characteristics comparable to theconventional eight-part round plaited sling body, yet which lends itselfto relatively economical fabrication on existing typical wire ropemachinery and ease of eye splicing and sling fabrication.

The steel cable laid structure is superior to the conventional helicallylaid cable laid body in ruggedness, compactness, flexibility, spinresistance, and abuse resistance.

Although a preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustratedand described, it will at once be apparent to those skilled in the artthat numerous modifications may be made within the spirit and scope ofthe invention.

I claim:

1. A cable laid metallic rope structure, said rope structure comprisingfour composite, coreless cables twisted about one another in a firstdirection of twist to thereby form the rope structure,

3 t each of said composite coreless cables -being composed of a pair ofbasic ropes, each of the basic ropes in each composite coreless cablebeing twisted in a second direction which is opposite from the aforesaidfirst direction of twist of the composite coreless cables, each of saidbasic ropes being twisted in the aforesaid first direction of twist,whereby the rope structure components have alternate directions oftwist.

2. The rope structure of claim 1 further characterized in that the basicrope construction is right regular lay.

3. The rope structure of claim 1 further characterized in that thelength of twist of the coreless cables and the rope structure aresubstantially identical.

4. The rope structure of claim 1 further characterized by and includingan eye splice, said eye splice having the same body structure as anunspliced section of the rope structure.

5. The rope structure of claim 4 further characterized in that the eyesplice is formed from two sections of 'the body structure, each sectionbeing composed of two composite coreless cables which have been entwinedtogether commencing at the bight of the eye, and further including meansfor locking the ends of the basic ropes at the crotch of the splice.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,334,244 3/ 1920 Howe 57-159 XR10 2,454,592 11/1948 Budzinski 57-142 2,491,293 12/ 1949 Zerr 57-1393,013,463 12/ 1961 Gathman et al. 57--142 XR 3,118,273 1/1964 Lucht57-159 XR 3,122,878 3/ 1964 Meals 57--159 XR 15 3,204,519 9/ 1965 Lawsonet al. 57-142 XR DONALD E. WATKINS, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R.

